Well-mannered pets, certified with human partners, have a mission to serve the area as ambassadors of love and compassion.

Clough Center, New London, NH

I had put aside this day to be at the Clough Center, the weather wasn’t good, there were closings of schools and other businesses. I thought what a better time to be at the Clough Center, maybe friends of the residents that were planning on visitors, wouldn’t be able to be there.
Our first stop was going to the Sun pouch, to see if any residents were there. Well to my surprise there was about 10 residents there finish up an activity with Sue. I ask if it would be okay to join them. We were given a warm welcome “Yes”. The dogs moved about smelling and checking each person there. I hadn’t planned a group visit, but it was a perfect time to be creative. I told them, the dogs and I were going to have a “Dog Show”. I hadn’t brought anything to do tricks, but I had a pocket full of treats for rewards. I hide my scarf out of the room and Lucy brought it back to me. May, she balanced the large scarf on her head, then I put treats on their paws and told the dogs to leave the treats and look at me until I said “ok eat” and then they gobbled the treats. We played “button, button who has the button?” but used treats instead, which was a hit, but pretty easy job for the dogs to smell the treats. I tosse d up a bean bag for May to catch in mid-air that seemed a great skill she loves to do.

After our so called “Dog Show”, we headed down to make our rounds to residents that weren’t in the sun porch or who very often don’t get out of their room. Our visit worked out to be a very welcomed change to all we were able to see on such a gray day.

The dogs enjoyed the job, rather than walking in the freezing rain or sitting around the house waiting for me to brave the weather.